Blue Buffalo Basics

[Rachel and Ollie]

Hey all, 

I did a search and did not come up with much on this food (I did see that it is on the recommended list) but if I missed a previous discussion on this please paste in the link. 

After Ollie gets his last puppy shot (and hopefully he has no reaction at all) I am planning on switching him to a different food. 

He has some tummy sensitivities. I haven't narrowed it down to what they really are, but I am hoping a food switch will eliminate anything that could cause an upset stomach. 

Have any of you used the Blue Buffalo Basics (puppy or adult)? What is your opinion of it? 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

It looks fine for a limited ingredient food.

Before choosing a new food, limited ingredient or otherwise, my questions would be:

What food is Ollie currently eating? What other foods, if any, have you tried?

What else does he get in the way of treats, extras, etc?

How old is he?

What are the symptoms or issues that cause you to believe he has food sensitivities?

[Rachel and Ollie]

Hey Karen, 

He is on Hills Science Diet right now. I have been wanting to switch him to a higher quality food but have waited because of all of his stomach reactions to his shots. 

I haven't tried any others, but I just got word that he has been sneaking Fromm at Doris' house :) and loves it, so it may be Fromm that we go with. 

He is five months old. 

His stomach just seems to upset easily with treats and other random times. His bm's are hardly ever solid. He also will throw up if I do not feed him in time in the morning. His system gets horribly messed up with the shots (but we only have one left!) 

Thanks!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Age?

What exact formula of Science Diet?

How much and how often?

What kind of treats? How much and how often?

When did you last have a fecal done?

The a.m. throwing up is common and related to going too long (i.e. overnight) without food. A snack before bed will fix that part.

[Rachel and Ollie]

He is five months. 

He eats the puppy formula small bites. 

I give him over a cup in the morning before work and then over a cup at dinner time and then I think either you had told me that the snack before bed would help or someone else did (I can't remember) and so I give him a little food before bed. 

Until recently he would run to his food and get really excited about eating. Now I have to coax him into eating it. It will sit there a while until he finally decides he should probably eat. 

He had a fecal last month after his reaction to the shot and just to make sure he didn't have something they couldn't see, they put him on a dewormer along with fortiflora. The fortiflora was awesome and helped him a lot, but he is not solid anymore. 

For treats I switched him (and that seemed to help) to the blue buffalo wilderness salmon jerky treats. 

I will be looking into the Fromm food too. 

Maybe the loose stools are a normal puppy phase. 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Here are the ingredients in the food Ollie is eating:

Whole Grain Corn, Chicken By-Product Meal, Corn Gluten Meal, Animal Fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid), Dried Beet Pulp, Chicken Liver Flavor, Brewers Rice, Dicalcium Phosphate, Lactic Acid, Fish Oil, Flaxseed, Soybean Oil, Iodized Salt, Potassium Chloride, L-lysine, Choline Chloride, Vitamin E Supplement, vitamins (L-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate (source of vitamin C), Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin A Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin, Folic Acid, Vitamin D3 Supplement), Magnesium Oxide, minerals (Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Copper Sulfate, Manganous Oxide, Calcium Iodate, Sodium Selenite), preserved with Mixed Tocopherols and Citric Acid, Phosphoric Acid, Beta-Carotene, Rosemary Extract.

This would give any dog loose stools. There is not one ingredient in the entire formula that is healthy or wholesome for dogs, or for practically anyone else for that matter.

It also contains way too much fat (19.8% !!!!!!) and way too little fiber (2.3%), which alone could very well be responsible for the loose poop.

Probiotics are great, but you don't want Fortiflora, which is another low quality Purina produced Rx rip-off. Try using plain, unflavored fat-free yogurt, or a good probiotic supplement from the pet supply store. Ark Naturals Gentle Digest is a good choice. But hopefully, you won't need one once you switch foods. Plain pure canned pumpkin helps add fiber and firm up stools, too.

I would not go with a low protein limited ingredient food for Ollie. I think the low protein will not help the poop issue. If you want to go with Blue, try the Wilderness Puppy formula. Fromm is also a very good choice, it is an ALS food so no puppy formula, but I would start with the Four Star Chicken a la Veg formula.

Anything you switch to would an improvement over this.

[Christine & Shelby]

Fromm does have a puppy formula.... Puppy Gold.... (bright pink bag).  I had Shelby on it for a while... now she eats the Fromm Adult Gold (black bag)

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Oh, right, Christine. I was thinking about the Fromm Four-Star line. The Fromm Gold Nutritionals is a very good food, too.

[Rachel and Ollie]

I saw that on their site! Did you like the puppy formula for her? or if you did it again would you just use the adult one from the start? 

[Christine & Shelby]

I would still do the puppy formula.... my vet recommended that I feed her puppy formula for a year.  She loved it (unlike any other food I had given her - she lost interest in other foods quickly), she transitioned to adult just fine.  The puppy formula is higher in calories for growth and all that puppy energy!  

 

[Rachel and Ollie]

Awesome! I'll look into it when I'm back. From the sounds of it Ollie loves Knox's food!

[Rachel and Ollie]

I have definitely been wanting to switch him from the current food. I know he doesn't like it and I also know that it is not healthy. 

Thanks for the help, I didn't realize that the basics food was low protein! 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Actually, I just looked at the puppy formula (turkey), and the protein levels are better than those in the adult turkey formula. It would be an aceptable choice as well.

Most limited ingredient formulas are lower in protein than other types of formulas. It just depends on the ratio of carbs to proteins.